Last Night's Episode 'Top Gear' USA, Southern Style

Finally saw the entire episode online and I have to say it was one of the best shows I have ever seen. Poor Hamster, he stood very little chance of making it out alive if they had stayed a couple minutes more. 🙂

Damned funny…..made me think about doing the same but perhaps without the paint jobs….aint that brave!!!

Very funny and only people with no sense of humour will find it boring. As I have posted in another thread, we have a “comedian” here in the UK called Russel Brand who is about as funny as having your spleen removed by a crocodile.
Be glad with what we have and that programmes like Top Gear are able to produce things like it in this stupid PC orientated world in which we live.

I’m off to set fire to a baby fox :diablo:

The best one ever IMO , very very funny , infact i had to watch it again tonight.:D 😀 😀

I thought it was really good. My 14 y/o son and I thoroughly enjoyed it although I did miss the ‘Star in a reasonably priced car’ session.

I peffered it without that 🙁 Cracking episode, but star in a reasonably priced car just feels like a chore now. Always seems an excuse to plug something…which I suppose is like a lot of things. Parkinson i’m looking at you!

That’s twice they’ve tried to kill the hamster and its only episode 3:D 😀

I was able to catch the first ten minutes of the show and I have to say that I can’t wait to see the rest of this show.

I did miss the ‘Star in a reasonably priced car’ session.

You had three “stars” driving in three very reasonably priced cars racing eachother half way through the US. Not enough? 😉

“Sports Car Club of America” bit of an oxymoron isn’t it 🙂

I’m sure you realize the club’s name has to to with the nationality of its members, not the members cars…:D
Sadly only the Corvette, Viper and the limited production Panoz would qualify as the current American made sports cars.

Oh ,that’s us yorkies owning kestrels and sliding down hills on tea trays then.:)

Yes, and Jeeves is waiting with tea.:D
The locals are always impressed when they learn my wife studied at Cambridge and they assume everyone went to public school.

Ah, so who’s doing the stereotype’s now then 😉

No, my point was if you paint something designed to offend the locals on your car I’m sure you’ll hear about it anywhere.
I thought it was fairly clear that I was using an English example…because I was corresponding with a largely UK audience.:D
Having been to UK football matches, I can attest to the croud’s gentlemanly demeanor.:D

Not at all..over here (thanks to endless BBC costume dramas)…most Americans think most brits are rather posh and probably driving Jags and Aston Martins. They don’t see the typical Brit as being from “Eastenders” or “Only Fools and Horses”.. rather folks who probably have servants…somewhere. 😀

Oh ,that’s us yorkies owning kestrels and sliding down hills on tea trays then.:)

I missed yesterdays episode as I was laid up in bed with a sudden bout of Tonsillitis.

Feeling a bit better day so I will have to watch the repeat on Wednesday.

I was looking forward to the American trip.

But try driving a car with “Arsenal Sucks” or Man U, or Liverpool….past the team’s football field just before a match….I’m sure you get something thrown at you…:D

Ah, so who’s doing the stereotype’s now then 😉

Found it hilarious and the garage owner’s reaction to ‘Nascar Sucks’ was fabulous….”I’m a gonna call the boys up…..” Funny but frightening. Couldn’t imagine a bunch of Yanks getting pelted with rocks for painting ‘Cricket sucks’ on a car:rolleyes:

But try driving a car with “Arsenal Sucks” or Man U, or Liverpool….past the team’s football field just before a match….I’m sure you get something thrown at you…:D

Lets face it, this is how your average American does view your average Brit, not only your average Brit, it’s how your average American views anyone who doesn’t live within the US boarders. Backward and technically backward, and this from a country where the height of automotive engineering is the leaf spring rear suspension.

Not at all..over here (thanks to endless BBC costume dramas)…most Americans think most brits are rather posh and probably driving Jags and Aston Martins. They don’t see the typical Brit as being from “Eastenders” or “Only Fools and Horses”.. rather folks who probably have servants…somewhere. 😀

I haven’t seen the story yet so I’ll reserve judgement…but it’s easy to have a laugh at someone elses expense. It sounds like the program was filled with stereotypes….I’ll bet they played the banjo music from “Deliverance”.

Funnily enough JB, a banjo was one thing that was lacking, but I would admit painting the cars with Democratic slogans on one, a love of homosexuality on another, and anti Nascar and Country music slogans on the third, was probably not the brightest thing to do, especially when driving into a Hick town. Before you jump on me for the HICK thing, that was the exact words the woman used in the Petrol Station, before she ran inside to call the “BOYS”.

A broad anology..its as if an American car magazine visited some Yorkshire farmer and looked at his series one Land Rover or barely MOT-legal 70s Ford and tried to pass him off as the typical British citizen or driver.

Lets face it, this is how your average American does view your average Brit, not only your average Brit, it’s how your average American views anyone who doesn’t live within the US boarders. Backward and technically backward, and this from a country where the height of automotive engineering is the leaf spring rear suspension.

I’ve read many UK car magazine stories where they “go see the ‘real’ America” and inevitably visit Elvis at Graceland, hunt out Camaro driving rednecks in the South (of which there are many) and find a “Bates Motel” (out of “Psycho”) look alike along Route 66. Do they exist, sure. Are they typical of America..no.

We all know Elvis is no where near Gracelands, he’s working as a holiday rep in Benidorm. Last night it was the Brits driving the Camaro and the Rednecks were in a modern day Dodge Ram, and you don’t have to travel Route 66 for the motel, I stayed in one near Polk City Florida.

What they don’t find are well educated/serious car buffs.

They don’t visit a Porsche Club of America wine and cheese meetings that would make even the most snobby Brit feel at home, or lawns of Pebble Beach where only the richest car people can display their toys.

Your average Porsche loving Brit would feel very awkward at a wine and cheese party, that is if he drives the car as it’s meant to be, and not as a status symbol

How about going to a Sports Car Club of America event where members know as much about proper British sports cars and anyone in the Home Counties.

“Sports Car Club of America” bit of an oxymoron isn’t it 🙂 Proper British Sports Cars, what would one of those be now a’ days then? TVR is/was Russian, Lotus is owned by a company from a country that eats dogs, Aston Martin is one of Henry’s, Jaguar the same and MG is now communist though that is only returning back to the 1970’s. That leaves Morgan which is not exactly at the forefront of sports car technology.

And certainly they don’t go to a local chapter of the Model A Ford (or Chevy, Studebaker, Mustang) Club where regular guys (with regular incomes and jobs) help each other out with problems and parts.

Oh come on JB, we’re talking about cars here, not the excuses that the average American automobile manufacturer turns our. Barges aground 🙂

Or even a local British Car Club, where otherwise sane people spend their weekings trying to keep MGs and Triumphs running…despite the best efforts of Lucas electronics to fail.

But they came to see America, if they wanted to see MG’s Triumphs etc being worked on, they could do that by visiting any average council estate in Saltford.

In other words, the producers sought out what they wanted to find. Normal people driving normal cars doesn’t make good TV.

Normal people, driving normal cars would be very boring, I grant you that, but there again we are talking America here 😀

I haven’t seen the story yet so I’ll reserve judgement…but it’s easy to have a laugh at someone elses expense. It sounds like the program was filled with stereotypes….I’ll bet they played the banjo music from “Deliverance”.
A broad anology..its as if an American car magazine visited some Yorkshire farmer and looked at his series one Land Rover or barely MOT-legal 70s Ford and tried to pass him off as the typical British citizen or driver.

I’ve read many UK car magazine stories where they “go see the ‘real’ America” and inevitably visit Elvis at Graceland, hunt out Camaro driving rednecks in the South (of which there are many) and find a “Bates Motel” (out of “Psycho”) look alike along Route 66. Do they exist, sure. Are they typical of America..no.

What they don’t find are well educated/serious car buffs.

They don’t visit a Porsche Club of America wine and cheese meetings that would make even the most snobby Brit feel at home, or lawns of Pebble Beach where only the richest car people can display their toys.How about going to a Sports Car Club of America event where members know as much about proper British sports cars and anyone in the Home Counties.
And certainly they don’t go to a local chapter of the Model A Ford (or Chevy, Studebaker, Mustang) Club where regular guys (with regular incomes and jobs) help each other out with problems and parts. Or even a local British Car Club, where otherwise sane people spend their weekings trying to keep MGs and Triumphs running…despite the best efforts of Lucas electronics to fail.

In other words, the producers sought out what they wanted to find.
Normal people driving normal cars doesn’t make good TV.

Found it hilarious and the garage owner’s reaction to ‘Nascar Sucks’ was fabulous….”I’m a gonna call the boys up…..” Funny but frightening. Couldn’t imagine a bunch of Yanks getting pelted with rocks for painting ‘Cricket sucks’ on a car:rolleyes:

I thought it was really good. My 14 y/o son and I thoroughly enjoyed it although I did miss the ‘Star in a reasonably priced car’ session.

The reaction of the rock throwing southern bapist good ole boys was fairly predictable, but that said, there aren’t many areas of the US where ‘MAN LOVE RULES OK’ painted on the side of a car wouldn’t get a reaction. :diablo:

More BBC, more!

RB

I thought it was excellent. Painfully funny at times! 😀

I watched it and many a time I had tears of laughter streaming down my face.

The “Redneck session” was scary and yes I too perceived it was a very real threat. I think the idea seemed fun initially and ok on paper but in reality…

The comments about New Orleans were indeed very true and poignant

As for the lawsuit thing at the end all I thouhgt was “how typical of America/lawyers” – sorry a scathing generalisation there…

Despite Top Gear’s reputation for faking things in the past, I don’t believe it was last night.

Certinally, the rock throwing seemed genuine. I can’t image the producers asking rocks to be thrown at them 😉